Social Innovation in the Undergraduate Architecture Studio

Aleksandra Krstikj

doi:10.3390/soc11010026

Abstract

Social innovation has been gaining attention as an alternative method for defining socially constructed problems and their solutions in times of failure of more conventional methods. This study focused on the potential of undergraduate architecture students for social innovation in public space production. A novel collaborative educational method was proposed based on a conceptual framework of social extrapreneurs’ platforms of exploration, experimentation and execution, and problem-based learning. The method was designed for 90 h synchronous and 90 h asynchronous work, in a remote teaching mode. The benefit of the method was foreseen in improving the social processes of public space production, especially in areas with pronounced discrimination. Social innovation in planning is crucial for the capacity of imagining better futures in the context of a system’s evolutionary resilience and has the potential for democratization of public place design. Preliminary results show that the proposed method enables critical thinking, sets the base of action on social justice, and turns students into active agents of social change; thus, it provides an important contribution to the necessary, but still uncharted, paradigm shift in architectural education from an object- to people-driven design.

Highlights

For several decades researchers have studied the politics of placemaking to shed light on the way communities conceptualize and react to socio-spatial changes [1,2]
The preliminary results show that the proposed method does foster social innovation in placemaking
In the context of the studio, they acted as extrapreneurs and developed tools and visual communications for an inclusive process of place imagination that is rich and diversified in the concepts and responds better to user needs

Summary

Introduction

Researchers have studied the politics of placemaking to shed light on the way communities conceptualize and react to socio-spatial changes [1,2]. Some developed countries have used charrette workshops to engage local communities in designing shared places or even large-scale urban plans [4,5,6]. Some of the main challenges related to this type of participatory planning are found in the requirement for a high level of public awareness where input should be needed and wanted, high cost for the organization, working with community representatives instead of larger groups that can lead to more subjective common place-framing, and limited time that is often not sufficient for understanding, let alone experimenting, with advanced technological tools [7,8,9]. In regions where low public awareness, oppression of vulnerable groups, and underfunding are recurring issues [10,11], charrettes can be difficult to implement. The challenge still lies in designing the social process of placemaking, whereby innovation will be in the way roles, tools, and structure promote inclusiveness and citizenship power [12,13]

Methods

Results

Conclusion